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Monday, January 06, 2003

Back to the Future DVD Trilogy Review

On the top of anyone's list of movies that hadn't been released on DVD was the Back to the Future series.

The last movie in the trilogy was released in 1990, and yet, more than 12 years later, there were still no DVDs.

Finally, in December, the trilogy hit stores in the form of a DVD box set -- no individual movies were released, and the set itself comes in a special three-disc case, so it can't be broken up easily.

Of course, the set is more than worth it's cost, even if you're not a fan of one of the three movies (usually the third and final installment).

Despite having been released in 1985, "Back to the Future" looks surprisingly crisp on DVD, with a quality transfer. The sound in the opening scenes is particularly strong, and the colors in the 1950s look just right.

The second movie is the one that gets the best DVD treatment, with the future scenes looking particularly good, if not somewhat unrealistic.

The third movie, the one set in the old west, doesn't look as good as the others on DVD, but it does benefit from being included -- people have given it a bad rap over the years, but watching all three movies in sequence makes the third one seem particularly good.

Some of the special features are overkill -- three movies worth of deleted scenes serve to prove mostly why they were deleted -- but the hoverboard test is very cool, as is the inclusion of an original making-of documentary.

The trivia track is particularly nice for those of us that like to know every little thing about every movie we watch -- basically every IMDB user.

Of course, now that Back to the Future is available on DVD, we have to turn our attention to other long-awaited series. Star Wars Trilogy anyone?